California fires may have killed hundreds of giant sequoias

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NPR-AP

LOS ANGELES — Northern California wildfires may have killed hundreds of giant sequoias as they swept through groves of the majestic monarchs in the Sierra Nevada, an official said Wednesday.

"It's heartbreaking," said Christy Brigham, head of resource management and science for Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.

The lightning-caused KNP Complex that erupted on Sept. 9 has burned into 15 giant sequoia groves in the park, Brigham said.

More than 2,000 firefighters were battling the blaze in sometimes treacherous terrain. On Wednesday afternoon, four people working on the fire were injured when a tree fell on them, the National Park Service reported.



Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/08/1044317913/california-giant-sequoias-fire

[irisblue]

1. Damn

[revmclaren]

2. So very terrible.

I worked at Cedar Grove in KCNP for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

So beautiful.

[Ziggysmom]

3. I just cannot bear to look at that. Thanks climate change deniers.

[brush]

4. Hundreds of years old trees wiped out in a few hours.

Horrible.

[Fla Dem]

5. I can't look either, or think of the thousands, if not millions of wildlife that has been lost.

[NullTuples]

6. And oil/coal companies are still being gov't subsidized at a rate of $11 million / day

At the very least, bring back the 55mph speed limit. Miles per gallon is a rather simple function of speed, even with more aerodynamic vehicles, to say nothing of the slab-front pickups that Detroit & Toyota City are releasing...

[NullTuples]

7. And oil/coal companies are still being gov't subsidized at a rate of $11 million / day

At the very least, bring back the 55mph speed limit. Miles per gallon is in part a function of speed, even with more aerodynamic vehicles, to say nothing of the slab-front pickups that Detroit & Toyota City are releasing. Federal studies show driving at 60 mph is as much as 25 percent more efficient than traveling at 75 mph.

There are so many things we *could* be doing but are not.

Then again, we can't even get people to wear masks, or vaccinate - or many politicians to mandate the same. I suppose expecting them to self sacrifice for the planet is asking a bit too much.

[Dial H For Hero]

8. Bringing back the 55 mph speed limit would be extraordinarily unpopular.

I recently drove 1,300 miles from Detroit to Denver after flying out there to buy a car. Averaging 75 mph or so the trip took me roughly 17 hours of driving. If I averaged only 55, it would have taken 24 hours of driving.

No thanks.

[NullTuples]

13. Yet it would cut freeway vehicle emissions by 25%.

We have reached the point in our non-response to the climate emergency where either we accept all of the hard choices...or we toast the planet. Simply put, we're run out of time.

I for one don't hold out a lot of hope very many people at all are willing to do what it takes.

Still, it would be nice.

[TeamProg]

9. So sad n/t

[manicdem]

10. Natural?

I thought fire was a natural part of the sequoias growth cycle? Especially from lightning strikes which are common for them.

They do...
Giant sequoia cones are serotinous, which means that fire on the forest floor causes them to dry out, open and release their seeds. This adaptation ensures that the tree times the release of most of its seeds to coincide with fire, which creates ideal conditions for regeneration success.

[PlanetBev]

11. Glad you mentioned that, manidem

Helps me to be a little less miserable at this destruction. Nature does have a way of coming back. That picture of the burning tree is heartbreaking, though.

[NickB79]

16. The fires we're seeing today aren't the same fires they evolved with

Due to the extraordinary dryness and heat, we're seeing fires that burn hotter, faster, and higher into the tree's crowns. They evolved with cooler, lower-burning fires that cleared out brush, not burned 100' up in the canopy. These fires are burning so hot due to greater fuel loads that even the thick bark of the sequoias can't stop it, and they die.

These are the megafires climatologists warned us about years ago. At 420ppm of CO2 like we have today (and rising every year), the entire southwest US will transition to savanna, scrubland and desert. Forests will only survive on coastlines and high mountains.

Without humans transplanting seedlings further north towards Canada, the sequoias and redwoods will likely go extinct.

[dingosatemyusername]

12. I dont think they should rush right in and cut "suspected" dead trees

you know someone is going to use it as a pretext to harvest as many as they can get away with

[Bayard]

14. Stand next to one of these magnificent giants

You can feel the sorrow of this destruction.

I know, fire helps them reseed, but this is no natural occurrence.

[Duppers]

15. Exactly!

TY.

[Ligyron]

18. And why the reseeding is a great thing...

it will still take hundreds and hundreds of years to produce trees like these again.

That’s if they don’t get burned up by more fires in the meantime.

[OverBurn]

17. So awful, some of those are 1000's of year old. They can live over 3000 years.

[argyl]

19. They're also the largest trees on Earth.

California coastal redwoods grow to be taller and the tree with the widest girth is a Montezuma cypress in Oaxaca, Mexico. A baobab tree in Africa is the 2nd widest.
But these two trees are a good bit larger than others in their species. The sequoias are consistent upon age with their huge girth. For sheer volume no other tree comes close to their size.

That hundreds are dying from these horrible fires is heartbreaking. Just being able to look upon these marvels of nature is breathtaking. And anything so huge, beautiful, and old will have a humbling effect on you. It does on me.

[bobalew]

20. OK, Here's the deal.

The Bark on these trees are very thick, allowing the larger trees to survive better than your pines or cedars. I had a small fire up at my place in the redwoods, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The smaller trees died off, and the larger trees survived. After about 6 months, even the burnt branches on the larger trees sprouted "Fuzzy" leaves, all around these burnt branches, as a recovery effort. 5 years later these trees are still surviving, and growing nicely, even with minimal rain. So don't count the larger trees down & out just yet. Any older, weaker trees with disease will not survive, however. The good thing is that the root systems of redwoods are interconnected, as we can see that the historically cut stumps, which are surrounded with a "Fairy Ring" of new growth. This complete cut-down of redwoods, occurred Post 1906 San Francisco earthquake, so most of the Santa Cruz groves are ~ 110 years old, and we have fully developed forests all over the Santa Cruz mountains. We have a few old growth trees still left, from prior to that era, including big basin & little basin parks, established by Teddy Roosevelt, during his presidencies, of which a large portion survived. We may decry the loss of these giants, but they will outlive us, as long as we have the coastal fog & rains.